What Labour Isn't Telling You

Friday 19 Jul 2002 Richard Prebble Press Releases -- Crime & Justice

ACT leader Richard Prebble said today he had obtained a full set of provisional crime figures from the Police, under the Official Information Act.

"What the government hasn't told the public is that violent crime in Auckland has risen by 10.4 percent during the 10-month period. This is on top of a 24 percent increase in violent crime in Auckland during the previous two years," Mr Prebble said.

"In the Bay of Plenty, violent crime is up by 14.6 percent for the 10 months, and in the Southern Region violence is up by 5.7 percent.

"The fact that the government is selectively putting out these provisional crime statistics, shows how rattled the government is on this issue.

"As a former Minister of Police, I know that provisional crime figures are never released because they invariably under-estimate the level of crime when the final statistics are included.

"So we can conclude from the provisional figures that there is a crime wave in Auckland. And when the final figures come out they will show violent crime throughout the country is increasing," Mr Prebble said.

ENDS

For more information visit ACT online at http://www.act.org.nz or contact the ACT Parliamentary Office at act@parliament.govt.nz.

© Scoop Media